Code Collector

Allen left Hilda's shop as Dante and waited in a nearby cafe while he waited for nighttime. By then, he will disguise himself and use the ten seconds of the Cloak of Nobody to enter the shop.

He doesn't need to be too wary of his surroundings since there were barely people outside. The brothel had already closed down, leaving Hilda's Code shop and the nearby cafe the only establishments open in the entire street.

"Hi, my name is Tina and I'll be your barista for today. What can I get you?" the woman from the counter greeted.

Allen paused for a moment. He looked up to the menu and looked for a coffee he wanted. The boy sighed, trying to figure out what he wanted to get.

"Why are you still not ordering?" a woman behind Allen groaned. "I'm really in a hurry. If you will just waste your time here, can I order first? I need to go now."

Allen nodded and stepped out of the line. The woman silently thanked him and went to the counter, ordering what she wanted. Tina, the barista, prepared her iced coffee and gave it to her in no time.

Allen understood that Tina, as well as the other workers, were using Codes to speed up their movements. This particular Code intrigued Allen since he could use this to enhance his attack speed.

"Iced coffee for Demi," Tina announced, giving the cup to the rushing Hunter. Demi smiled at her and mouthed a thank you before leaving the cafe.

"Your turn again," Tina smiled. "What can I get you?"

"Uhm, iced latte please," Allen ordered. Tina nodded at this and proceeded to do her work. The boy couldn't stop his mouth, blurting out a question, "Is that a Code you're using? That's so cool."

"It is," Tina smiled, finishing the latte. "Name please."

"Dante," Allen replied, making sure to not forget his name. "Just write Dante or whatever."

Tina looked up to Allen and smirked. "Okay then."

She wrote on the cup before handing it to the boy, "And yes, it's a Code that the company let's us use. It's called Hands of Haste and it increases the hands' speed by thirty percent for five seconds. Cooldown is twenty five seconds.

"Forty percent?" Allen awed. "That's huge. Is that a Rare grade?"

"Yep. A high-tier one," Tina replied. "I believe it's from a big cat. I don't know which cat or what type of cat it is. Maybe a tiger or a lion."

Allen nodded slowly. He thanked Tina and left the cafe, walking into a nearby bench near the Rundown Street. It was the afternoon. Just a bit more and he can go to Hilda to water his seed so it could grow right.

The boy found himself looking at the cup of coffee in his hand. He read the name Tina wrote, earning it a smirk from him.

'Dante or Whatever'

That was the words written in the cup. Allen chuckled after the barista's joke was filled with humor for him.

"So, this is life?" Allen asked himself and rested his head on the backrest of the bench. He sighed and closed his eyes, deciding to take a short nap before he enter his work mode.

–

"Allen."

A woman whispered in his ear. Allen scratched it, thinking it was just another dream since he was now Dante. The Allen was dead.

"Allen."

The woman called out again. This time, Allen opened his eyes and he found himself in the familiar burning forest. He looked around and there was blood everywhere.

Right in his arms was a heavy thing that he knew all too well. He gulped and lowered his gaze, his eyes meeting the headless woman in white robes.

Allen screamed, wanting to throw away the corpse but his body was too frightened to move. "Why am I here again?!"

Just like what happened when he was previously there, his previous group arrived. Selena walked over to him and healed him, while the others tried to find the giant fire-breathing lizard.

It was the same scene from before and Allen wanted to wake up any moment now. He doesn't like to see this event that he couldn't even remember.

"Allen?" Selena called out. "Are you okay?"

He looked at the woman as if she just asked the dumbest question in the world. Allen opened his mouth and was about to answer when a voice beat him to it.

"I want to rest, Selena."

His eyes widen, as if his world took a sudden pause. Allen looked behind him, there he saw his previous body staring at him. It also had the headless woman in his arms but its eyes never left Allen.

"How about you, Dante? Are you okay?"

Allen grit his teeth. He tried to raise his arms to punch the man in the face, but he couldn't do it.

It then dawned him that he wasn't able to move not because of fear, but because he wasn't permitted to by whoever was trapping him inside this illusion.

"Who are you?!" Allen growled. "Answer me now or you'll regret it later."

"Oh, so fierce," his doppelganger faked gasped. "But I am you, Allen. I was you. A fragment of your soul that wasn't completely altered by the Snake. I have your deepest memory that yoh held so dear."

"I know this is just an illusion," Allen growled. "Let me out now. None of this had ever happened. I do not remember such thing."

"Oh, Allen," the doppelgange smirked. "You'll know. But I made a deal with the Snake. Once you solve out your first case, I'll let you in on a secret that someone close to you is hiding."

"I have no one close to me," Allen said. "If you're really me, then you know that I work alone."

"Oh," the doppelganger grinned from ear to ear. "Then you're not looking. You're just seeing."

"What?"

Allen then felt his body get heavy. It was as if he was being lulled to sleep. He felt something cold in between his thighs, making his eyes snap and him waking up in the bench.

The boy gasped for air as if he was submerged underwater for minutes on end. He looked around him and saw that it was already nighttime. He had to go to Hilda right that second.

Allen stood and felt the sticky wet and cold liquid in his pants. He flinched after seeing that it was the iced latte from Tina. He must've dropped it in his lap while he took the nap.

Shaking the thoughts away, the boy ran to the nearest alley. He spread the rumor of The Wandering Trader appearing in the alleys but he never really came to them, and he had no intentions of doing so.

He wasn't dumb enough to go to a place where the police could trap and corner him. He just told Jack that to test the credibility of the rumors. He memorized the exact words he said to Jack and waited for another source to tell him.

When he received the rumor, it wasn't too far from the truth, therefore he could trust the words that were passed on from the market's stalls. The rumors he received from jack wasn't completely inaccurate, therefore he could make use of them.

Allen put on his cloak and walked to the corner of the street. He has ten seconds to walk inside the street and position himself in front of Hilda as if he didn't lose his composure by rushing.

At first, he really didn't want to impress Hilda. He can just walk around the street and no cop would try to catch him. The scene of the crime was at the centre, the guards were stationed far from the Rundown Street, and there was barely anyone here.

Those three fators made Allen confident. The police wouldn't have time to go to this place when no one was going to be the victim.

The doors opened and the bell rang, startling Hilda. She looked at the closing door and heard footsteps approach her. Hilda grabbed the nearest weapon she can raised it against the area where she could hear the footsteps.